


Together

by darkcyan



Series: Tumblr Fics [1]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-07 03:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4246962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkcyan/pseuds/darkcyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natsume moves in with the Fujiwaras about eight years early.  At first, he assumes this school will be no different from any of the others.</p>
<p>Then he freaks out on the playground one day – some random youkai teasing him, nothing special, he should have just ignored it – and some of his classmates start teasing him, and he’s hunching in on himself and telling himself that of course, he should have expected it –</p>
<p>And what seems like a human whirlwind (he’s … pretty sure she’s human?  The other kids can see her at least?) descends on them and informs them that Natsume IS SO telling the truth because YOUKAI TOTALLY ARE REAL because MY GRANDFATHER SAYS SO THAT’S WHY.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So there I was, minding my business on tumblr, and then I said "childhood best friends taki and natsume AU". And then I realized I'd successfully nerd-sniped myself and threw words at the screen for a while. And then I realized I kind of liked the result. 
> 
> So. Warnings for half-meta, half-fic, less coherence than usual, a bit of angst and a lot of fluff. 
> 
> (P.S. Happy Birthday, Natsume!)

Let's say that Natsume moves in with the Fujiwaras at some point in elementary school.  He’s been through a couple of dubious families by that point, but they see him at some sort of family gathering and think he’s the most adorable child they’ve ever seen, but worrisomely quiet and withdrawn and pale.  They see his current family treating him like he has the plague, and they’re like NOPE OURS NOW. 

At first, it’s not a whole lot different from the other places he’s been.  (Aside from the Fujiwaras.  They’re amazing.  Even if he’s not entirely sure how to handle the fact that they seem to actually care.) His classmates are kind of standoffish, especially after the first couple of times he freaks out.  Not actively mean, yet, but he’s sure it’s only a matter of time. 

(The Fujiwaras hear about his freakouts and try to gently ask him about them.  He’s been through enough already that he doesn’t think they’ll believe him, and puts them off with the same lies that he tells everyone else.  They don’t believe his lies, of course, but they’re also not sure what the truth is.  So they wait, and watch, and shower him with love, and hope he’ll be willing to open up to them eventually. They can tell that he’s lying out of fear rather than malice.)  

Then he freaks out on the playground one day – some random youkai teasing him, nothing special, he should have just ignored it – and some of his classmates start teasing him, and he’s hunching in on himself and wondering why he thought this place might be any different –   

And what seems like a human whirlwind (he’s … pretty sure she’s human?  The other kids can see her at least?) descends on them and informs them that Natsume IS SO telling the truth because YOUKAI TOTALLY ARE REAL because MY GRANDFATHER SAYS SO THAT’S WHY.  

She takes him by the hand and drags him off and once they’re safely away peppers him with a million questions that he doesn’t have the answers to. Before he gets the chance to even start replying she tells him to wait, they should go find her grandfather, he’ll want to hear too.  

(At some point – probably after they track down her grandfather and he sees how confused and overwhelmed poor Natsume is – she stops to actually introduce herself.  She’s in a different class at Natsume’s school so they won’t see much of each other there, but that pales beside the fact that she’s Natsume’s first ever _actual friend_.) 

It blows Natsume’s mind that here are other people who believe that youkai really are real, that he isn’t crazy or overly sensitive or any of those things that he’s heard enough times already to start internalizing them, that even though neither Tooru-chan (she insisted) or her grandfather can see them, they actually _believe_ him.  They’re actually _interested_ in what he can see.  And sometimes they can help him figure out what it actually is.  

They help him figure out charms against some of the smaller, more annoying youkai.  Which don’t always … work quite right.  But sometimes they do.  And after enough youkai get their fingers burned, they stop bothering him quite as much, at least when he’s around Taki or her grandfather.  (And he’s pretty much always around Taki or her grandfather.) 

Neither of Taki’s parents are around much, even now.  Her brother still is, for a few years yet, and treats Natsume with the same combination of bemused fondness and irritation (depending on whether they just messed with _his stuff_ or not) that he treats his own little sister.  They both kind of miss him when he goes off to college, and after when he starts traveling almost as much as Taki’s father. 

When Taki’s grandfather is off on one of his trips – _no_ , kids, I’m not going to take you along, not until you’re older.  _No_ , you’re not older enough yet, it’s only been a week since the last time you asked – Taki settles into the Fujiwara household about as completely as Natsume has settled into the Taki household.  

They clear out another spare room for her as soon as they learn that sometimes, she’s left at home alone.  She protests that she can take care of herself, she’s a _big_ girl now!  But Touko is politely firm and Natsume’s puppy eyes should be _illegal_. 

(And if Natsume ends up in Taki’s room or vice versa as often as not, staying up way past their bedtime talking and giggling and reading with flashlights cunningly hidden under the covers, well.  The Fujiwaras smile and pretend not to notice.) 

Of course, Natsume’s secret lasts all of two hours past the first time Taki comes to visit the Fujiwaras’ house.  It’s his fault, really – it never occurred to him ask her not to say anything, because he’s never had someone who _shared_ his secret before.  

They’re initially not sure what to think, other than that Natsume is far happier since he met Taki and they’d love her just for that, but a handful of conversations behind closed doors with Taki’s grandfather (once he gets back) are enough to convince them that maybe there’s no _proof_ , but it’s as good a theory as any – and far better than the ones his sorry excuses for former guardians had.  

Taki and Natsume stay pretty much inseparable as the years pass.  Initially the other children tease them about it, but neither of them care, so eventually the teasing fades away and everyone just accepts it as fact – whenever you see one, the other is never far behind.  

(Taki keeps trying to convince the Fujiwaras that it’s fine, she’s fine on her own, when her grandfather goes on trips.  They keep politely insisting that she stay with them anyway.  Honestly they don’t think much of her parents, but they’d never say so.  … She and Natsume do eventually stop sneaking into each other’s rooms at night, though.  It’s just.  A bit embarrassing, is all.) 

Taki’s grandfather discovers the circle, and while in another world he would probably have just tried to figure it out on his own, he knows that Natsume can tell him whether being unable to see anything means that he’s gotten it wrong, or simply that there is nothing to see there.  And if he’s involving Natsume, his granddaughter would never forgive him if he didn’t involve her too.  

So they experiment, and Natsume tries to convince the youkai that hang around the house – and really do like both Taki and her grandfather, seriously who do they think they’re kidding? – to enter the circle, but of course none of them will.  Taki’s grandfather is disappointed, but at least he knows there’s nothing there to see.  So the three of them keep trying. 

Taki’s grandfather’s health starts to fail; he rarely goes outside anymore, and some days can’t even get up. Taki and Natsume take turns nursing him, Touko providing nourishing food for all three of them because yes, dear, I know you know how to cook, but please let me do this much?  

And every time it’s Natsume’s turn, he lays the circle out on the bedspread, and another copy on the floor next to Taki’s grandfather’s futon, and he’d put another one on the windowsill but there isn’t enough room.  And he glares at the youkai who gather around (always with their excuses about why they “just happen” to be in the area), and once or twice – only when he knows that Taki is far away and her grandfather is deeply asleep – he pleads.  Points out that it probably won’t be much longer.  Asks that they grant this one wish.  Reminds them how much fun they’ve had watching him over the years.  

One night, _finally_ , when Natsume and Taki have stopped even making a pretense of taking turns and simply both spend as much time as they can at her grandfather’s side; late enough that their fake-cheerful conversation has mostly died away and Shinichiro is trying to convince his stubborn grandchildren to go to bed (because Takashi has long since become just as much his as Tooru is, and since he got sick, Touko helped them clear out a spare room at their house for Natsume to stay in, too), just a couple of them enter the circle.  

The small black one says “Get better soon, it’s boring without you.” 

Shinichiro smiles, and solemnly says that he’ll try his best, as Taki stares with wide eyes and Natsume is quietly glad. 

He dies a few days later, still smiling. 

Taki and Natsume are both heartbroken – but at least they have each other.  It’s not enough, but it helps.  Just a little bit.  

Taki all but officially moves in with the Fujiwaras a couple of days later.  

A couple of months later her mother comments that Taki doesn’t seem to be around the house as much anymore.  Taki makes a half-hearted excuse; when her mother doesn’t bother to pry deeper, she just smiles sadly and goes back to trying to help Natsume figure out their latest math assignment. 

It’s not like they’re never at her old house anymore – the storehouse is still their favorite place to spend what free time they have, especially now that it’s the only link they have left to Taki’s grandfather – but the Fujiwaras' place is _home_ , now. 

Taki keeps experimenting with the circle, but only when Natsume’s around.  She’s dragged enough stories out of him about why he sometimes shows up places late and bruised and covered in grass stains (until eventually he gives up and started just telling her); been in enough situations where Natsume suddenly gasped ‘RUN’ and she did – and upon hearing his explanations afterwards, was glad for it – that she knows youkai are not all as kind as the ones who live in her house.  She’d rather not run into one of the bad ones _without_ him there as backup and early warning.  

(Maybe she still runs across the youkai who cursed her.  Maybe they both end up cursed – and very carefully _never_ say Touko or Shigeru’s name – but at least they’re in it together.  Twice the research into ways to stop it.  Support, reassurance when one or the other of them is paralyzed with the fear that they’ll never make it.  Natsume can ask around earlier and more thoroughly.  Somehow they see it through.)  

(And it doesn’t stop them – not now that Taki has a way to share Natsume’s world through more than just stories.  Not ever.) 

(Not now that the Fujiwaras have a chance to see proof of what they’ve taken on faith for so long.  Because once they know the circle works, the Fujiwaras are the first - initially the only - people Taki and Natsume share it with.)

The Fujiwaras get mailed Reiko’s effects at about the same time as they did in that other world.  They go through them with Natsume, because he’s no longer the isolated, afraid little boy he was when they first met him.  He doesn’t have many secrets from them anymore – and certainly no important ones – and this is a part of his history that he doesn’t know very well and wants to share, if they’re interested.  (Of course they’re interested.) 

Natsume still finds the Book of Friends, but the first thing he does this time is tell Taki and the Fujiwaras about it.  They’re worried, when he says he plans on returning the names.  But they agree that it’s the right thing to do.  Taki sticks to him more closely for a whlie.  Shigeru buys them both cell phones after the first time Natsume ends up running around at all hours of the night – because they may not be able to protect him, but at least he can let them know that he’s safe.  (Touko feeds him even more meat, hoping that it’ll help the exhaustion from returning the names.  Plus, almost eight years after moving in with them, he’s _still_ too skinny.) 

He still trips over Madara’s seal, running from a youkai. Still cuts the same deal with him.  

Madara is a bit disconcerted to come home and immediately be glomped by Natsume’s – sister?  she doesn’t smell like him, but he’s pretty sure that’s what humans usually call children who live in the same house and are looked after by the same people.  It’s also rather strange that instead of being introduced as a pet cat, Natsume just says “He looks like a cat, but he’s a youkai who claims he’ll be my bodyguard.  Also he can talk.  Can I keep him?” 

Natsume is very different from Reiko.  

Perhaps the biggest difference is this: 

He may smile a lot, but most of his smiles are real.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... And then someone asked me if Natsume and Taki adopted Tanuma. :)

When Tanuma Kaname first moves to Yowake, he’s not entirely sure what to make of it.  It’s … nice.  Quiet.  The temple they live in is one of the larger places they’ve lived recently, which is nice if occasionally seeming a bit … empty.  

(And there’s this one room with a beautiful shadow of a pond and fish on the ceiling that he wishes he could show his dad but.  He’d probably just get quietly worried again.  So he doesn’t.) 

The new school also seems nice.  He doesn’t really make any friends at first, but that’s nothing new, either.  That one guy in his class, Kitamoto, brings him his homework when he has to miss class because he got sick _again_ , but Kaname wouldn’t really call him a _friend_.  

Then one day he’s walking down the hall and suddenly gets the worst headache he’s had in ages, almost as bad as the one he got that time he saw – well, he’s not sure what he saw exactly, just that it was huge and dark and had at least three eyes and claws the size of his head.  He doesn’t see anything this time, though, and hopes desperately that that doesn’t mean that he’s relapsing _again_. 

Kitamoto helps him to the nurse’s office, where they run into a girl he doesn’t know – Sasada is her name, apparently, class 2′s representative.  Apparently some guy from her class – Natsume? – fainted.  She seems more exasperated than worried, and Kitamoto barely phased.  Apparently this happens a lot.   

“You let Taki-san know, didn’t you?” Kitamoto asks.  

Sasada-san looks like she’s barely suppressing the urge to roll her eyes.  “She’d never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t.”

Kaname peeks into the curtained-off area – the bed contains a guy about his age with silver hair, who he’s surprised to actually recognize.  But then, he’s probably the only guy with silver hair in the entire school. So.  

He finds a spare chair to sit in as Kitamoto and Sasada keep chatting – the nurse is nowhere in sight – and has just enough time to start wondering who ‘Taki’ is when a girl with shoulder-length reddish-blonde hair bursts through the door and heads straight for the curtained-off area.  

Sasada shakes her head and starts to leave.  Kitamoto asks if Kaname will be all right – he nods; his headache has already mostly faded – and says he’s heading back to class too.  

Kaname leans his head back against the wall and closes his eyes, not-listening to the low-voiced conversation behind the curtain.  He catches a few words here and there – ‘Takashi’ and ‘worried’ and ‘dangerous’ and ‘Tooru’ and ‘alone’.  He thinks it must be great, to have a (girl?)friend like that.  

The next thing he knows, someone is shaking his shoulder.  He dazes awake and looks up into two pair of worried eyes:  Taki, and Natsume, looking pale but steady on his feet.  

“Are you all right?”  Taki asks.  

“What?  Yes, sorry.”  Kaname says.  “I just had a bit of a headache earlier, and then I must have fallen asleep.”  This is apparently not reassuring.  He waves a hand in a ‘don’t-worry’ sort of gesture.  “It happens all the time, it’s fine.” 

Taki and Natsume exchange a look, and Natsume says, “Was it right after lunch?  On the second floor?” 

Kaname blinks.  “What?” 

Natsume smiles, quick and dismissive.  “Sorry, weird question. You’re new, right?  You’ve probably heard the rumors about me.  Anyway, sorry to bother you.  I hope you feel better soon.” 

It’s not until Natsume turns to leave that Kaname finds a break in the flow of words that he feels capable of entering.  “Wait.  Um.  You’re right.  How did you know?”  

Because maybe it was just that Taki had told Natsume that he’d been there when she burst in.  But he thinks it’s something more than that, somehow.  And not just because yes, he has heard a few of the rumors, even if he’d mostly ignored them.  

Taki and Natsume exchange another glance.  Taki looks around the room, finds and drags two chairs over, and plants one pointedly behind Natsume.  “You.  Sit.” 

She much less dramatically takes a seat in the other and turns to Tanuma and smiles, broad and infectious.  “So, can you see youkai too?”

* * *

 

Sort of, but not really, they eventually decide. Not like Natsume can.  “Still more than I can do, though,” Taki says with a shrug and a slightly wry smile.  “But hey, there’s something really cool we can show you, if you have time after school?”  

“Sure,” Kaname says immediately, then wonders if he responded too fast.  They’d asked, so it was all right, right?  

He thinks of a shadowy reflection on the ceiling and, before he can paralyze himself with second thoughts, says “I … think I might have something cool to show you, too?” 

* * *

One afternoon becomes two becomes many.  

It’s awkward at first – Taki and Natsume are Kaname’s first _real_ friends, and he’s never been good at judging the boundaries of what’s appropriate friend behavior.  Especially with these two, who’ve known each other for almost ten years and sometimes don’t seem to have any boundaries.  He’s terrified of being overly familiar and a bit jealous (okay, a _lot_ jealous) and he _hates_ that he’s that small-minded a person.  

And Taki and Natsume may have known each other for what seems like forever, but they’re practically each other’s only close friend, too.  They forget, sometimes, that Kaname doesn’t know the shortcuts and in-jokes and everything that’s grown between them over the years.  

(Taki is the first to get tired of his stubborn “Taki-san”.  “Call me Taki,” she says, “or Tooru, if that’s not too weird.  It’s weird, isn’t it?  I mean, I don’t even know your given name.  But Takashi and I have been calling each other by given name since we were, like, seven, so.  It just seems weird to make you keep calling me Taki.  We’re friends, after all, right?”) 

(Kaname eventually recognizes that in their own way, Taki and Natsume – Tooru and Takashi – are just as bad at this as he is.  It doesn’t solve everything, that realization.  But it helps.) 

(”It’s Kaname,” he replies.  “My given name.”  He doesn’t know how to express how deeply moved he is by their willingness to open their duo and let him in, so he doesn’t say anything else.  Eventually, he realizes he doesn’t need to.) 

(It takes a while for him to actually willingly start using their given names, though.  But eventually avoiding using any names at all becomes even more awkward.)

It turns out that the shadow on his ceiling is of a pond that only Takashi can see; they spend more than one afternoon hanging out in that room, throwing around idle suggestions as to how to make it so that Tooru and Kaname can see it too.  Takashi thinks it’s too broad for Tooru’s circle – “unless you wanted to make a really big version?  But then I think you’d have to cut down those trees over there” – and while they’ve been trying to figure out a way to make a more convenient version – say, engraved on a mirror?  Tooru thinks theoretically it ought to be possible – they’ve had no luck so far.  

With as frequently as they’re over at Tooru’s house to dig through the storeroom, it takes Kaname longer than it should to realize that she lives with Takashi. 

“It’s not _official_ ,” she says, “but, well.  My parents are away a lot.  I keep telling Touko-san that it’s fine –”

“She’s never going to let you go now,” Takashi says, with a fond smile and a knowing air.  “I’m afraid you’re stuck with us for good.”  

Tooru doesn’t seem to mind.  

“By the way,” he says, turning to Kaname, “you’ve got a standing invitation to stay for dinner, too.  Apparently she thinks you’re too skinny.”  This, he says with an aggrieved air, and behind him Kaname can see Tooru stifling a chuckle.  Weight, to Takashi, is apparently something of a sore point.  

… So it really shouldn’t have surprised him that the next time his dad left on a multi-day business trip, he found himself summarily kidnapped to the Fujiwara house.  

He drew the line at letting them give him a proper bedroom – no, I don’t care that this is a large old house and there are plenty to spare – but one of the guest bedrooms always just happened to be ready and waiting, and eventually he stops trying to hide when his dad will be gone because somehow they _always know_ , so he has a sinking suspicion that the only argument he won was the syntactic one. 

(Plus, even his dad thinks it’s a great idea, thanking Touko-san for looking out for him, even as she protests that no, it’s no trouble at all.) 

(And okay, yeah, Kaname really enjoys it too.) 

So Kaname’s life settles into a new pattern, with Takashi and Tooru stitched in so deeply that he almost can’t remember what it was like without them there.  

(That’s a lie.  He remembers very well:  it was calm, and quiet, and a little bit lonely.)  

He runs from youkai, and researches youkai, and gets into arguments about homework.  He goes to see all of Natori Shuuichi’s new movies – which Takashi always (not-so-)mysteriously has three tickets to – and shares whispered observations until they run the risk of getting kicked out.  

When Takashi’s too busy getting involved in things Kaname and Tooru really _can’t_ help him with, the two of them sit together and worry and try to distract each other by coming up with increasingly ridiculous plans for how they can help out for _sure_ next time. 

Things are rarely quiet or calm anymore.  But Kaname’s never lonely, either. 

It’s a fair trade, he thinks.


End file.
